At 5 a.m. this morning I was still asleep.
I did not participate in the Black Friday craziness.
Nor do I feel that it is my personal responsibility to revive the economy.
A few years ago I realized that since I was trying to pare down my “stuff” and my mother was trying to pare down her “stuff” it made little sense to keep buying more “stuff” at Christmas. How incredibly liberating it is not to be rushing around spending money I don’t have to buy things that are not needed!
Our holidays are now low key, enjoyable, and relaxing. We focus on spending time together NOT on who got what for whom. Try it!
Sandra
Even though I like to cook, I have always enjoyed Peg Bracken’s I Hate To Cook Book.
She knew how to keep it simple – a boon for busy moms that have to cook almost every day. Her book also contained many recipes (okay, not so many vegetarian ones) that could be done ahead in the event one woke up full of energy and wanted to get the cooking for the day done with the rest of the daily chores.
When I wake up full of energy and the stars are aligned right and I know full well that I will be occupied with tasks that are not kitchen related, I like to go a step further than Peg Bracken recommends. I become my own personal chef.
I take my menu in hand (assuming I have one!) and make two or three dinners at a time.
There are a number of advantages to getting multiple dinners done in advance.
Altogether, my personal chef cook dates are quite satisfying. I hope Peg Bracken would have agreed.
Sandra
Is it just me?
Unbeknownst to them, my mother and ex-mother-in-law taught me a valuable lesson. Don’t wait until you are passed seventy years old to sort through your stuff.
I decided a few years ago with a big assist from my “less is more” husband to start purging, sorting, and organizing the accumulation of some twenty years.
Mostly I have done pretty well getting rid of the old clothes, college textbooks, baby things, and so on. I have ebayed, goodwilled, salvation armied, craiglisted, book recycled, amvetted, and spca rummage saled.
What I have difficulty doing is just plain throwing something that might possibly be useful in the trash. Oh, I can toss away things that are obviously broken. But, a piece of clothing with one tiny spot on it or old tupperware containers or stuffed animals that just need a little TLC I can’t seem to throw away without guilt.
I am in awe of folks that can just go through their stuff and garbage it all. Wham bam – the extraneous stuff is gone and the drawer or closet or dresser is streamlined. Alas, I am not one of those folks. Not do I expect I will become one at this stage in the game. I am too brainwashed by the mantra of reuse and recycle.
So I wash and mend and clean and photograph and list and write up ads. All these things make the process of clearing out pretty darn slow at times. But I keep chipping away at it. And when I get a closet organized or a kitchen shelf cleared out I feel pretty good about the accomplishment.
And when I need some extra encouragement, I open up one of the many organizing books I have accumulated – oops!
Sandra
My local Congressional House representative voted “yes” on the Health Care Reform bill. Soon thereafter, there were people out in front of his office both supporting and condemning his vote.
One man had a sign that said “No Income Tax”.
What!?!
Okay, if you want to protest where your taxes go, that makes sense. I have often thought it would be convenient to have check boxes on your IRS forms where you could opt-in – take my tax money and pay for Medicaid – or opt-out – please don’t use my tax money for war.
But to want to pay no income taxes in this day and age is just plain foolish.
What this gentleman apparently wants is no public schools, no law enforcement, no public roads, no food regulations, etc. According to him the private sector will take care of everything – well, we saw how well the banks did that when left to their own devices.
I vote for paying taxes so that I know when my spinach is safe to eat.
There is nothing nicer than a fresh spinach salad with fake bacon bits, sharp cheddar cheese, and honey mustard dressing. Add some tangy apple chunks and some walnuts for extra yummy.
Or you can use that safe spinach to make my Spinach Pesto Salad.
(See, I can mix politics and cooking!)
Sandra
Is it just me?
Did you ever see one of those segments on the morning shows where some savvy shopper goes to the grocery store and buys $100 worth of groceries and ends up paying 65¢?
During the course of the segment, savvy shopper usually starts out buying something useful – like corn flakes – and with a combination of coupons, store specials, and so on the corn flakes are free. Okay, that sounds wonderful!
But, I always wonder what else she has in her cart that she ends up paying so little. I use coupons, store specials, and so on. I never spend only 65¢ for $100 worth of groceries.
So I went, once, to one of the coupon sites savvy shopper recommended. I saw immediately why my grocery bill is never 65¢. Practically every coupon was for something processed or baby oriented. I did not see a single coupon for plain beans, brown rice, portabello mushrooms, or coffee. Sigh.
The Ultimate Cheapskate guy suggests the way to save money at the grocery store is to never spend more than 99¢ a pound for anything. Okay, that sounds doable. Beans and rice would qualify. But what if I want some cheese? Or a fresh tomato? Or a green pepper? Or coffee? This sort of plan falls apart quickly for me. Sigh number two.
Eating out of your pantry for a week or two is supposed to lower the grocery budget. Again, this makes a lot of sense. But when I see the emptying pantry shelves, I feel an urgent need to restock them.
I blame my husband for this urgency. He told me about listening to an audio book called The Second After. If you are not familiar with the book, the basic story is that there is a terrorist attack on the United States that wipes out all the electricity. Within a very short period of time, people are scrabbling for food and going to some fairly unsavory extremes to get it. I feel reassured when I see my pantry and know that we would survive for some time on the contents. Okay, there may be some strange meals of black-eyed peas and cream of wheat. But, we wouldn’t starve. Sigh number three.
So, I guess I will go on using some coupons and shopping store specials and spending a bit more than 65¢ for my groceries. I may also try menu planning. I will keep you posted.
Sandra
Why do people blog?
I think it is because we all have interests, opinions, and passions and want to be able to connect with other people that share our interests, opinions, and passions.
I think, too, we would all like to make a small mark in the world.
So here will be my small mark.
Although, I guess that this blog is really my second mark. My first would be Bry-Back Manor. I will have to confess that I still get a kick out of doing a google search for Activity Pages and seeing my site come up as the first and second search result. Why is that so remarkable you wonder? Because I am not a corporation marketing anything. I am just a stay at home mom in Central Virginia who thought it would be fun to have a web site back in 1996.
But enough about that.
Now I want to do something a little different. My children are in their twenties. One is on her own and the other – my daughter with Down Syndrome – is still at home. I thought I would put together a site that is a little more grown up.
I happen to love to cook. I have been cooking since I was fourteen and never seem to get bored with putting together good meals or trying new recipes or checking out the latest kitchen gadgets.
I recently saw the movie Julie and Julia. What was not to like there! Cooking, computing, and Meryl Streep. I could do that, I thought!
Instead of the Art of French Cooking, however, I would be more likely to make every recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook. Or I could just share some of the recipes I love to make. And so that is what I plan to do on this site.
And I also plan to blog.
Sandra